Becoming Interculturally Competent through Education and Training (Languages for Intercultural Communication and Education, 18)

The development of intercultural competence is the avowed purpose of teachers/trainers in commercial training and further and higher education, and yet the approaches are often seen as different and even in opposition. This book shows that there is complementarity in ‘education’ and ‘training’ in theory and in practice. The first group of chapters focuses on analysis of intercultural experience and the competence needed to be successful in that experience. The following chapters describe the practice of courses in both commercial and educational contexts where it becomes evident that ‘education’ and ‘training’ are indeed complementary without denying the tensions which exist and the expectations different learner groups may have. This book is thus not simply another discussion of the theory of interculturality but a juxtaposition of theory and practice to the benefit of both.

Anwei Feng is Professor of Language Education at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC). He has had teaching and research experience in many countries and regions including China, Qatar, Hong Kong, Singapore and the UK. His research areas include multilingualism, multilingual education, and intercultural studies in education.

Michael Byram is Professor Emeritus at Durham University, England. Having studied languages at Cambridge University, he taught French and  German in school and adult education and then did teacher education at Durham. He was adviser to the Language Policy Division of the Council of Europe and then on the expert group which produced the Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture. His research has included the education of minorities, foreign language teaching and intercultural competence, and more recently on how the PhD is experienced and assessed in a range of different countries.

Mike Fleming is Professor Emeritus at the University of Durham, UK. He has published widely on intercultural education and arts education.